Folder Sync after Folder Compare

[Pete]

- Renamed "Compare folder structure" option to "Sync empty folders" and moved it from the "Comparison" tab to the "Sync" tab.

The first problem is that there are two very different names for what seems to be almost the same thing ("Compare folder structure" and "Sync empty folders"). This is confusing. I admit that it's hard for me to suggest anything better, but what about something like this:

folder compare:
"Always show folders"
"Compare files and folder structure"
"Only compare files"
"Ignore folder structure"

folder sync:
"Compare files and folder structure"
"Only compare files"

They could be radio buttons in the session settings. The folder-sync-session settings could use those two radio buttons instead of the current checkbox ("Sync empty folders") for consistency, which you probably agree is important.

Anyway, while I'm glad that the empty-folders setting can be controlled by each folder-sync session, I'm disappointed that we've lost this ability when going from a folder compare to a folder sync via "Session > Sync base folders in new view". I think that this setting is useful in both folder compares and folder syncs. When jumping from one to the other, it would be nice if this setting followed.

I noticed that in folder compares, the setting ("Compare folder structure") is indeed saved on a per-session basis, but instead of being in the session settings where it's easy to find, it's now hidden in the toolbar dropdown during a compare session. This means that if we change the toolbar setting during one session, then it remains changed the next time that we re-load that session.

Since you're already saving this setting, why can't it be kept in a highly visible place with the other session settings for folder compares? And why can't it be a permanent setting in the session settings that's not affected by changing the toolbar drop-down.

I posted in a different topic why I can't directly use the folder-sync window (e.g. only the bottom half of the screen is used for the file listing and the context menu lacks important commands such as Delete & Copy to other side, I have to maintain two different session settings for each folder pair (one for compare, one for sync), etc.).

So I'm trying to make BC3 work like BC2. Ideally I could do 90% of the work in the folder-compare window and only use the folder-sync window when I'm ready to start the sync (via "Session > Sync base folders in new view"). This would be my preferred method except this procedure currently has the following problems:

1) After I finish the folder comparison, work with my files, and choose "Session > Sync base folders in new view", BC does the comparison all over again. Because it takes a long time for a folder comparison, this is not pleasant and it seems unnecessary because BC2 could start a sync from a folder-compare window without re-doing the comparison. This happens even if I disable all Quick Tests and every other kind of test in the session defaults for folder sync.

2) With the change in a recent build, now I also can't control whether empty folders are synced on a per-session basis when I use "Session > Sync base folders in new view". The ability to control this on a per-session basis was the one feature of syncing in BC3 that I thought was a real improvement and I was looking forward to it until I read the recent release notes.

At the least, can't BC3 get the "Compare folder structure" setting from the toolbar dropdown in the folder-compare window and use it with "Sync base folders in new view" to determine if empty folders should be processed? In general, it would be nice if all of the folder-compare settings were used when I use "Sync base folders in new view" except for the mirroring option and perhaps the recycle-bin option, both of which could continue to be pulled from the default-session settings of folder sync.

In general, I want to stress how pleased I am with BC3. I just hope that points (1) and (2) can be addressed so there is tighter integration when I jump from a folder compare to a folder sync (more like how BC2 worked).

[Pete]

I've abandoned the idea of starting a Folder Sync session from a Folder Compare session. There are too many negatives.

I now only use Folder Compare, never Folder Sync. I've configured my Folder Compare toolbar and my keyboard shortcuts like this:

Show only Diffs - F9
Select all files & folders - F10
Mirror Right - F11

When I'm ready to sync, I press F9, F10, F11, then Enter. After the sync, I press another shortcut key to return to showing only orphans so that I'm ready for the next time I use BC. It's not as easy as it was in BC2, but it works well enough after you create a procedure for yourself.

The negatives are (1) the extra keystrokes or button clicks, (2) you have to remember to follow the procedure to show every file that you want to include in the sync and remember to Select All, and (3) everything remains in the selection color during the sync so it's not very pretty.

The positive feature in BC3 is that this method allows me to set "Sync Empty Folders" on a per-session basis. This is a great improvement from BC2.